The written test was over.
Rei exited the lecture hall in a quiet stream of students, all buzzing with leftover tension. Some whispered about the questions they'd missed, others groaned about how hard it had been. A few walked in stunned silence, heads down, like they'd just been handed a death sentence.
Rei didn't say a word. He didn't need to. He hadn't come here to talk.
Soon, the crowd thinned and students were redirected toward a different building—the one where the practical exam briefing would take place.
The real test.
A long corridor funneled them into a large briefing hall, stark and metallic. Rows of seats were arranged before a massive screen mounted on the far wall. Below it was a big podium. The air buzzed with energy, anticipation, and nerves.
Rei took a seat near the middle, not too close to the front, not tucked away in the back. Just enough to see everything, without drawing attention.
Then came the voice.
"What's up UA candidates! Thanks for tuning into me, your school DJ!"
Rei blinked up at the large screen. There he was—Present Mic. The Voice Hero.
Aizawa has talked about him before… Rei recalled. Something about him being loud enough to shake walls. The display confirmed it.
"Come on and lemme hear ya!" Present Mic shouted with all the energy of a concert announcer.
He held out his arms, waiting for the auditorium to roar.
It didn't.
Just silence. Awkward, tense silence.
"Keeping it mellow, huh?" Present Mic replied without missing a beat. "That's fine. I'll skip straight onto the main show!"
Present Mic went on to explain the practical exam and how it works. Putting it simply, everyone gets divided into 7 different mock battle centers with an urban setting. everyone has 10 minutes to gather points from 3 different villain types.
"Excuse me, sir, but I have a question."
A sharp voice cut through the air.
Rei turned slightly and saw a tall boy with short dark-blue hair standing upright, rigid posture, and polished manners.
"Hit me!" Present Mic said enthusiastically as a literal spotlight hit the boy from above.
"On the printout, you've listed four types of villains, not three." The boy raised his paper. "With all respect, if this is an error on official UA material, it is shameful!"
Rei's brow twitched.
Really? he thought. This is what you stop the test over?
The boy wasn't finished.
He kept going, berating the lack of attention to detail, talking about UA's image, and somehow ended up snapping at a green-haired boy behind him for "muttering too much."
Rei's gaze lowered, expression blank.
I'd like to start this practical exam already… he thought, sighing internally.
Back on screen, Present Mic handled it smoothly.
The fourth villain was explained—a zero-pointer, massive, dangerous, and worth no points. Purely a distraction. Avoid at all costs.
With that cleared up, the screen faded and the energy in the room surged.
The briefing was over.
Rei followed the others, funneling through hallways into different locker rooms. A random battle center awaited.
His hands remained in his pockets, eyes half-lidded.
No more questions. No more delays.
Now, it was time to show what he could do.
Now he stood in front of the massive gates of U.A. High's Battle Center E.
The towering steel doors loomed ahead like the mouth of some enormous beast, waiting to swallow them whole. Concrete walls. Simulated city streets. Alleyways. Rooftops. The mock battlefield was practically a small urban maze.
Around Rei stood about two dozen other examinees. Most were bouncing on their feet, stretching, hyping themselves up with quiet mantras or nervous chatter. Some cracked their knuckles. Some cracked under pressure.
Rei? He stood still.
Calm. Observant. Hands in his pockets.
His eyes scanned faces quickly, looking for anyone familiar—and landed nowhere. Good. The tall boy with the loud voice from earlier had clearly been assigned to a different testing center.
'Really dodged a bullet with that one,' Rei thought, exhaling softly. I assume he'll try to bore the robots to death.
He smirked slightly at his own thought but didn't have time to finish it.
Because just then—
BOOM.
Present Mic's voice exploded from the speakers above, rattling the already tense nerves of half the crowd.
"Right! Let's start! Get moving! There are no countdowns in real battles!
And like that—
The gates slammed open.
No warning. No buzzer. No ready, set, go.
Just open.
And chaos.
Students rushed forward in a chaotic burst of adrenaline, quirks igniting left and right. Sparks, wind, blasts of light, all firing as they bolted into the city.
Rei didn't move just yet. He watched.
There's no countdown in real life…
He stepped forward—calmly.
Because in real battles, the ones who panic first... usually lose.
He took a couple of seconds to scan the immediate vicinity.
Buildings—four stories tall on average. Narrow streets. Chokepoints everywhere. Debris already scattered. The others were sprinting in a mad rush forward, jostling each other as they shouted and activated their quirks.
Rei bolted—but not straight ahead.
He moved sideways and up, launching a pair of ghostly hands onto the edge of a rooftop. With a sharp pull, he lifted himself above the crowd, soaring over the mess of arms and elbows like smoke through cracks.
Too many people clogging the streets. I'll move better up high.
He landed on the roof lightly, knees bent, and scanned the next block.
A one-pointer. Low, squat, rolling fast down the street like a bulldog on wheels.
Without a second thought, Rei launched a ghost hand. It flew straight and fast, translucent fingers closed into a spear-like shape. It hit the robot square in the center, piercing through its armor and erupting out the other side.
BOOM.
The bot sparked and crumpled.
'One point.'
Rei dropped back down to street level just in time for a two-pointer to come smashing out through a nearby wall, bricks scattering like dice. Its red optics locked onto him instantly, targeting systems flaring to life.
It charged.
But Rei was faster.
Two ghost hands flung out—one sweeping low, crashing into the machine's legs with crushing force. Metal bent, twisted. The robot lost balance.
Before it could recover, Rei sent another hand like a hammer straight into its head.
Crash.
It collapsed in a heap of wires and sparking limbs.
'Three points.'
As the robot sparked on the ground, Rei stepped closer and noticed something he hadn't seen before—a switch panel embedded in the back of its frame. It looked like some kind of emergency shutdown or override system.
He knelt briefly and examined it.
'Interesting. I guess there's more than one way to earn points off these things...' he noted silently. 'But destroying them is faster.'
He stood and looked ahead. The sound of battle echoed from deeper in the arena. Explosions, quirk discharges, and metallic screeches filled the air.
Rei took off again—ghost hands pulling him forward, toward the next fight.
'13 points… 18 points… 27 points.'
The count rose steadily in Rei's head with each dispatched robot.
It wasn't easy to keep track, but his mind handled it like clockwork—mechanical, precise, just like the machines he was tearing apart.
Then, another wave. A three-pointer—tall, heavy, spiked with armor—lurched from an alleyway, flanked by two one-pointers rolling in like cannonballs.
Rei tensed. A new one.
"A three-pointer?" he thought as it barreled straight at him.
He didn't meet it head-on. Instead, he vaulted sideways, using a pair of ghost hands to hurl himself off the side of a lamppost just in time. The three-pointer crashed past, barely missing him.
Mid-air, Rei twisted his body and launched a ghost hand down with pinpoint accuracy. It smashed clean through the head of a one-pointer, knocking it flat in a puff of smoke and sparks.
28 points.
Rei landed behind the three-pointer. Before it could swivel around, he spotted a small access panel glowing faintly near its shoulder blade.
Without hesitation, he flicked it open and slammed a ghost hand into the exposed circuits inside. The machine froze, then collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
31.
The second one-pointer turned to flee, but Rei was faster. A clean strike to its sensor core, and it was done.
32.
"Decent," Rei muttered, scanning the area for more.
But I can do more.
He took off running, weaving through broken buildings and shattered asphalt. He rounded a corner—
—and froze.
There was rubble everywhere, blown apart concrete, warped steel beams, and just ahead: a girl pinned beneath a thick slab of debris.
A two-pointer bore down on her.
The girl struggled, her foot caught, panic written across her face.
Rei didn't hesitate.
A ghost hand lashed out, gripping the robot's head mid-charge and halting its momentum instantly. Its limbs flailed, gears straining—but it couldn't break free.
A second hand materialized and gently lifted the slab pinning the girl's leg. A third formed below her, cradling her weight and slowly helping her to stand.
Her leg buckled the moment it hit the ground.
"Can you move?" Rei asked, the hand around the two-pointer still crushing tighter.
"I… I don't think so," the girl whimpered, trying—and failing—to take a step.
Rei sighed through his nose.
"Let me help. I'll bring you to the gates."
With a final mental command, he crushed the robot's head like a tin can. The disabled shell hit the ground with a heavy metallic clang.
Two hands supported the girl while a third helped guide Rei forward as he began making his way back.
"This'll waste your time, won't it?" the examinee asked, glancing up at him with worried eyes.
Rei didn't respond right away.
She was right. He knew it. Every second lost was another point lost. Another robot someone else would destroy. Another advantage slipping away.
And who's to say UA didn't have a fail safe for if things went too wrong..
But he shook the thought out of his mind.
"That's not important right now," he said simply, focusing forward.
He could always make up the points.
But people weren't so easily replaceable.
"6 MINUTES LEFT EVERYBODY! BETTER HURRY UP AND GET THOSE POINTS!"
Present Mic's voice blared from the loudspeakers above, echoing across the battlefield in bursts of static and enthusiasm.
The girl in Rei's arms flinched slightly at the sudden volume. She let out a long, defeated sigh."Well, it's clearly over for me..."
Rei kept moving, his pace steady. "At least you didn't suffer anything too severe," he noted, voice calm and composed.
Then his eyes caught movement—just up ahead, near the collapsed remains of a bus stop. Another examinee, cornered by three one-pointers that moved in a tight, jerking circle, trapping them like a pack of wolves.
Rei didn't break stride. With a flick of his wrist, a ghost hand rocketed forward, latching onto the leg of one of the robots and yanking it sideways. The machine tumbled—its body clattered into another one-pointer, and both crashed into a wall in a sparking heap.
That left one robot. The examinee didn't waste the opening—leaping forward and smashing the last one-pointer with a quick blast of their own quirk.
Rei glanced away.The threat was gone.
Moments later, he reached the battle center gates, gently setting the injured girl down near the perimeter wall. Smoke plumed from distant wreckage, and robot limbs littered the streets like confetti. The battle raged on outside—but for now, she was safe.
"I'm sure there'll be UA staff somewhere nearby. Maybe wait here."
"I will," she nodded, still breathless. Then hesitated. "Thank you…"
"Rei," he responded dryly, not quite looking at her.
"Right… Rei."
And that was it. No time for more words.
Rei turned sharply and dashed back into the fray, launching himself over debris with a swift push from his ghost hands. His silhouette vanished between twisted buildings.
'I still have time to get a lot more points.'
He summoned a hand and hurled himself upward—slingshotting to higher ground to get a better view of the battlefield below.
There was still time.
And Rei wasn't done yet.
"FIVE MINUTES EVERYONE! CLOCK IS TICKING!"
The voice crackled through the sky like thunder, dragging Rei's attention momentarily upward before he darted down another street.
41 points. His current tally.
A one-pointer lunged from a rooftop above, but Rei anticipated it—ghost hand to the core, shattering it into sparks mid-air.
The pace was picking up. He was getting faster.
"THREE MINUTES LEFT! HOPE YOU HAVE MORE THAN A DOZEN POINTS!"
55. He'd just disarmed a two-pointer and then caught a falling examinee mid-air before they hit rubble.
"Watch your step," he muttered before slingshotting himself off a building's edge.
The battlefield was chaos now. Smog in the air, broken metal everywhere. Most of the other candidates were bruised and exhausted. Rei felt it too—his arms burned, his breath came faster—but he kept pushing.
"TWO MINUTES! TIME IS UP SOON!"
65. He had just impaled another three-pointer, then used it like a stepping stone to fling himself up and over a collapsing wall.
Every motion felt like instinct now. Every ghost hand appeared and vanished on command, fluid and deadly.
"30 SECONDS..."
Another robot exploded under pressure from both sides.
"10 SECONDS..."
Rei dove through a collapsing structure, eyes locked on one last two-pointer tearing through the street.
"3...2...1..."
Ghost hand. Right through the chest. The machine sputtered and dropped like a puppet with its strings cut.
"TIME IS UUUUUP!!"
The loudspeaker fell silent, leaving only the ringing in Rei's ears and the hiss of sparking metal.
He stood hunched forward, panting, drenched in sweat from head to toe. His bangs clung to his face, his chest heaved.
That last hit had taken everything he had left.
He straightened slowly, dragging a hand across his forehead to wipe it clean.
'Damn... I lost count.'
He exhaled.
'Well… guess I'll find out soon enough.'